Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Monday, January 12, 2015

Will Tony Award-Winning Teachers Be "Effective" At Raising Student Test Scores?

From Patrick Healy at the NY Times:

A new Tony Award will be given annually to a theater teacher who has made a “monumental impact” on the lives of students, executives who oversee the Tonys and officials at Carnegie Mellon University announced on Sunday. The honor is intended to reflect the appreciation that many Tony winners — actors, writers, directors — have expressed for drama teachers who guided or inspired them. The award is the first new Tony since 2009. Through March 31, anyone can nominate a teacher for the new Excellence in Theater Education Award. Nominees must be current teachers at an accredited elementary, middle or high school or community theater organization in the United States. (College professors and retired teachers are not eligible.) A panel of judges comprising members of the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League, which oversee the Tonys, and Carnegie Mellon officials and theater industry executives will choose the winner, who will receive the award onstage at the annual Tonys ceremony in June.

If Governor Cuomo and Regents Chancellor Tisch get their way, a teacher in NY State will have 40% of their annual performance rating based on how well their students do on state standardized exams.

If the teacher is deemed "ineffective" on that 40% component of the APPR evaluation system based upon student test scores, they must be declared "ineffective" overall as teachers.

Notice the language for the new Tony award:

A new Tony Award will be given annually to a theater teacher who has made a “monumental impact” on the lives of students.

Nothing there about adding value to their test scores.

How can the executives who oversee the Tonys dare to create a new Tony Award for educators without adding a test score component?

Given the importance of test scores as hailed by Cuomo, Tisch, Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan and countless other education reformers, shouldn't the executives who oversee the Tonys amend the language for the new Tony Award for Teachers to say

A new Tony Award will be given annually to a theater teacher who has made a “monumental impact” on the lives of students and raised their test scores.

I mean, so long as we're talking "monumental impact" on students, how can we not be talking about test scores?

No comments:

Post a Comment